Chapter Text
Right as dusk turned night, and the fireflies awoke from the grass, a rustling of leaves could be heard, the faint light of a torch was held far from the vine body, about to be extinguished.
" Light! Light! " It's bearer said, a hollow, echoey voice.
They ran towards a couple fireflies, just as the fire died... But insects are scared off easily, so they must run towards another little agglomerate, then another, and another, like following a glowing trail that will leave you to die if you are too slow to keep up.
They jumped from light to light, knees tired, feet thumping on the grass with every step. They kept on going until a different, faint, light was seen, a small cave entrance, with a hanging candle lamp. They ran there, kneeling down and taking a deep breath, as much as their leaves could take.
" Too... Dark." They said, slowly getting up, "Where am?”
Looking around, this cave seemed different to the usual sinkhole, a big formation of rock with boards rotting on the ground as if it was broken into ages ago.
The plant creature, Wormwood , slowly got up, picking up the lantern and walking in, curious. If the light was on, maybe someone was inside…
All was quiet, the cave was longer than it looked, the exit slowly being left behind, he walked all the way to a dead end.
“Hmm… think empty.” He turned around, about to leave, but a few steps ahead, he heard a creaking sound and looked down. “Path made of… friends?” He stopped, a step left then right. “B- bridge! Empty under.”
Worm looked over the small rope railing, trying to see what could be further down, but was met with a deep abyss, no bottom in sight.
Ready to leave, the next step had a louder creak , the next a pop , then a crack , the boards under leafy feet gave out and the bridge broke down, taking Wormwood with it. The plant let out a scream during the fall, the candle lantern opened up, and it’s flame hit Worm’s leaves
“ FirE FIRE! TAKE OFF !!”
“ HURTS HUrt -”
Splash
Wormwood crashed in a pool of water, the flames died, leaving only charred leaves behind.
//////////////
Everything around his neck and wrists stung greatly, Worm could barely breath as he soaked in the pool of water he had fallen in, slowly floating to the side until his head hit dry stone.
He felt dizzy, hearing a buzzing, almost like music, and seeing faint yellow lights from behind him.
For a few minutes, he was still a little stunned, just laying down on the water, looking up to where he had just fallen from.
Eventually, Worm did rise from the water, only to be met with checkered floors, surrounded by the stone. He followed it to a well lit area, with shelves full of trinkets, and soft music playing.
“You! Hey! You!” Someone spoke, startling Wormwood, he turned around to see a counter, with a rather tired looking man, wearing a suit and tie. “ You are from the rescue party, correct? Thank the skies! Finally! These guys are there and it has been weeks! Go ahead after them!” The guy spoke rapidly, confusing the plant.
He tried to open his mouth to ask a question, when a door opened, and he was promptly shoved in.
“You are looking for a clown, a sailor and a robot, good luck!” The door was closed.
“ Wait! ” Worm tried, but all he had was a long, loong corridor, lined with torches. Wormwood kept going, a few drops of water still covered his vines, a few ashes still fell from his burnt leaves, but he kept going, walking and walking.
//////////////
On the way, he saw pits, with buckets filled by tooth traps, as if dug up from the ground hastily, he hopped up and down the pits, already wanting to get out.
The space felt crammed, the air felt thick, and scarce, and the crackling of fire didn't help, even still, he was curious… rescue party? Why? Was someone lost down here? These three were there much longer than him, and didn't leave yet, then was he stuck too? Many questions arose in his head, almost forgetting to look forward to the pile of balloons he just bumped into.
“F-floaties?” He pushed them out of the way and a few more floated around.
The walls were painted red and white, there was confetti on the floor, he couldn't help but notice the green ones were shaped like four leaf clovers, it was oddly quiet, not even the wind passed.
A little ahead was a glass door, and a thrown around pair of boots. Worm opened it, finding many broken mirrors, with the floor covered in glass, so he put on the boots to go forward, stepping on the crunchy shards to make his way.
It was all divided, twists and turns everywhere, like a maze, every mirror being more and more broken, reflecting a mess of green, like looking into a fly's eye.
“What happen?” Worm touched a leaf to the shard, careful, then resumed walking, lost.
“Are lost ones here?” Maybe they got lost in the maze, maybe it was some endless place, but still, he kept walking, not knowing the way back out.
Maybe he should look for them, some company was better than the nothing he was used to.
“ Heeeeeey! Are lost friends heeeeeeere ?” He called, but all he got was echo, like his reflections had answered back.
Wormwood pushed out some glass with his foot, the clinking sound along with the crushing were becoming old fast… One turn after the other, he always expected something, but all he got was more broken mirrors. Mindlessly, Worm kept going.
“Think friends left here… need search for search!” Worm kicked a particularly big glass piece forward, he was a little happy that the boots were there, his leaves were safe inside them. He remembers the pigs he used to live near saying that broken mirrors meant bad luck, whoever broke them was probably really unlucky.
“Maybe big rumblies made all go boom!? Then dirt very unlucky… Sad… Did lost friends break them too? That why lost?” He wondered.
Soon, a particular corridor caught his eye, it had the line of broken mirrors give in to perfectly new ones, at the end of the trail sat a lone hammer, with a passage on the side.
“Exit!” He beamed, getting out of the awful labyrinth.
“ Wheeee ” he got out to a similar room to the beginning, but there were more balloons, many, many more… He could barely see anything.
“Hello? Friends here?” He moved some balloons, but there were too many. “Can pop floaties? Hard to see with!” He asked, in the hope someone would listen. “Will pop!” He walked back, picking up a glass shard carefully, slicing the first one.
The pop took others around it out, so he kept going, making a nice path around.
“Pretty floaties loud…” He popped a line of balloons. “Ooh, colors!” Some had colorful pieces of paper inside, that showered all over Worm.
The last pop was followed by another sound
Thump
Click-clack
“Someone there?” He called, walking towards it, cleaning more of the path. He saw a pair of boots, much like his, with black pants. “F-friend?” He asked, cleaning the area in front of him to see who was th-
…
“Oh…”
“You… not alive?”
It was a skeleton, wearing a striped shirt and surrounded by glass shards.
“This the clown friend?” He tried poking the skull. “Dead…”It fell from the neck. “Whoops… only two friends to find now” he dragged his feet, walking back and looking for the exit. The key to leave was on the floor, he picked it up, getting out of the balloon circus, and back to the stone walls of the cave.
//////////////
Wormwood went on… Leaping down a ledge, down stairs, up ladders… The whole place seemed very odd… everything felt unnatural…
The air there was still and heavy… Worm missed the sunlight already, his leaves would soon start to lose color…
He tripped on the way, on the floor was some sort of skeleton, a rat’s, with it’s paws substituted by mechanical limbs, ahead was a rabbit in a similar state, then a lizard… The trail of small animals led to a human skeleton, bearing big round glasses and a lab coat… none of it was mechanical… Yet, behind it sat a robot, about the same size, rusted over… it looked powerless, the head had a massive dent, the chest open, with many wires and gears spewing out. Many bugs seemed to be inside the carcass.
“Friend dead too?” Wood walked up, poking the robot a little, the head dropped lower and the plant took a good look, seeing something stuck to the wires.
“What this?” He picked it up, “This your lightning box?” He looked between the device and the bot. “Will fill up for friend!”
Worm carefully took the wires out, examining the battery closer, he saw some rust, and a spider… He then looked around the room, spotting a pond in the corner, inside were some fish, some green ones drawing attention, they sparked and jolted from time to time.
“Maybe long glub glubs can help?” He walked over and reached for one, but was given a light shock back. “ Ow ! Hurts!”
Worm looked around for something to catch the eel with, seeing his boot, he picked it up and scooped the animal, throwing the battery inside. The eel wrapped around it and shocked a few times.
Buzz Buzz
“Thank friend!” He poured the animal back, grabbing the battery and putting back the boot, he didn't mind the wetness much, even if it made a squelching sound when he walked back to the bot.
He grabbed as many wires as he could and connected them to the battery, putting as much stuff back inside the torso as he could…
“Will metal friend feel better?” He closed the chest, expecting something to happen. He heard a grinding noise as some gears started to turn, a faint static sound started coming from the head.
Their head went up, eyes shot open they tried moving and-
“ Hello metal friend! Feel well?”